State of Hawaii Archives: on Welfare & Poverty

Neil Abercrombie:
Keep sidewalks open & clear; homeless into housing for good

Q: What proposals do you have for homelessness?

IGE: Multiple causes of homelessness require multiple solutions: increase the supply of low-cost rental housing for families at risk by increasing funds to the Rental Housing Trust Fund; support the
Housing First initiative for emergency housing; and support our State homeless shelters.

ABERCROMBIE: Our administration recognized that if we're going to make progress on homelessness, we'd have to work collaboratively. That's why we established the
first-ever statewide homeless coordinator. Just this year, we enacted two laws that will keep sidewalks open and clean, the first step to taking our streets back. Together with the City of Honolulu, we are also working to advance the Housing First
program. This program has been adopted in areas across the country with great success. It focuses on getting homeless into housing units as a first step so they can receive the necessary services and care they need to get off the streets for good.

David Ige:
Build affordable homes and Transit Oriented Development

Q: Hawaii's cost of living is the highest in the country by many indicators. What can really be done to make things like housing, food and transportation less expensive?

A: We must build homes that Hawaii's working families can afford--not luxury
condominiums for out-of-state speculators. With average new home prices approaching $700,000, there needs to be leadership to increase the supply of housing at all price points while protecting Hawaii's natural beauty.

The construction of the Honolulu rail system provides the opportunity for Transit Oriented Development incorporating housing along its 21-mile route.

We should reduce the cost of food by increasing local food production.
Currently, we import $3 billion in food. Yet over the past four years we've lost more than 2,100 acres of prime agricultural land without a plan for replacing it.

David Ige:
Increasing funds to Rental Housing Trust Fund for homeless

Q: What proposals do you have for the complicated issue of homelessness?

ABERCROMBIE: After years of neglect, our administration has worked hard to put the state back on the right track. While we have substantial obligations that will take many years
to fully address, I am confident now that we are finally tackling the issue rather than kicking the can down the road. The Employer-Union Trust Fund (EUTF) has never been prefunded until my administration came into office.

IGE: Multiple causes of homelessness require multiple solutions. We need to increase the supply of low-cost rental housing for families at risk by increasing funds to the Rental Housing Trust Fund--which the Legislature did this session,
support the Housing First initiative to provide emergency housing, and maintain support for our State homeless shelters and veterans outreach program.

Brian Schatz:
100% score on the National Food Policy Scorecard

Senator Brian Schatz today received a perfect 100% score on the 2013 National Food Policy Scorecard put out by Food Policy Action (FPA) for his work to make sure Hawai'i families have access to food.

"Having healthy, nutritious food is a basic
necessity for everyone, but access to that food may not be so basic," said Senator Schatz. "More than 90,000 Hawai'i families rely on help from the government each month to put food on their tables. We all need to work together to be sure families in
Hawai'i have nutritious food."

The full Scorecard for all members of the 113th Congress can be viewed at www.foodpolicyaction.org. FPA was created in 2012 to turn shared values about sustainable food and farming into national priorities.

The National Food Policy Scorecard is published to educate the public on food policy issues and provides objective information about the most important food policy votes before Congress. [Press release from the office of the senator].

Duke Aiona:
The chronic homeless choose to not follow the rules

Q: Homelessness is something that you and the governor have had a lot of accomplishments on. What strikes you about folks on the street?

A: I think it's just humanity as a whole. My faith is such that it is part of our ministry to help those in need,
and homeless people are those that are in need. The [category of the homeless] that frustrates me are the ones that are doing it because they want to do it, the ones that choose to be homeless, but they're the ones that choose not to follow rules.
They choose to have the independence. "Government get out of my way, leave me alone."

Q: That's what they call the chronic homeless?

A: Yeah. I guess that's what they call them in the social realm. But, they are just people that just don't want to
follow rules. That's the most frustrating, because what do you do with them? They are basically, I guess, cheating the rest of society. They are living off of land that isn't theirs. They're not working. They're not being productive.